New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urged world leaders assembled at the G20 leaders’ summit to make global structures, including the UN Security Council, reflective of current realities.

Speaking at a summit session, Modi made India’s claim for permanent membership of the UNSC unambiguous and cautioned that it is a natural law that individuals and institutions that do not adapt to change tend to lose their relevance over time. The five permanent UN members with veto power in the world body are the US, UK, France, Russia and China.

Modi’s call to secure a seat for India at the UNSC comes against the backdrop of India presenting itself as the voice of the Global South, championing the cause of developing and least developed countries. It comes a day after G20 nations according permanent membership to the 55-member African Union in G20, based on a proposal by India.

India and Brazil, which holds the next G20 presidency, also issued a joint statement in which Modi and Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva reaffirmed their commitment to the comprehensive reform of the UN Security Council, including its expansion in the permanent and non-permanent categories, with increased representation of developing countries in both. The leaders reiterated their mutual support for their countries’ permanent membership in an expanded UNSC.

Modi also called for reforms at multilateral banks, global regulations on crypto assets, responsible human-centric AI governance and global cooperation in cyber-security. In his concluding remarks at the two-day G20 leaders’ summit, he proposed another G20 meeting in November when Brazil formally takes over the grouping’s presidency.

Modi told the visiting leaders that today’s world is vastly different from when the UN was set up. UN had 51 founding members initially, but it now has nearly 200 members, Modi said.

“But the number of permanent members in the UNSC stays the same. Since then, the world has changed in every respect. Whether it is transportation, communication, health or education, every sector has undergone a transformation. These new realities should be reflected in our new global structure," the Prime Minister said in his bilingual speech.

“It is natural law that persons and institutions that do not adapt to change, lose their relevance. With an open mind, we have to consider why many regional forums have emerged in recent years and are proving to be effective," Modi said.

Modi also suggested a human-centric vision for world leaders rather than a “GDP-centric" one. He said that India, like many other countries, has a lot to share with the rest of the world and referred to New Delhi’s commitment to share data from the Chandrayaan mission for the benefit of humanity.

The Prime minister emphasized evolving a regulatory framework for crypto assets. “The field of cryptocurrency has emerged as a new topic for everyone, that is, social order, monetary and financial stability. Therefore, we have to develop global standards to regulate crypto-currencies. We have the Basel standards on bank regulation in front of us as a model," Modi said.

The leaders’ summit also offered Indian and visiting leaders an opportunity to hold bilateral talks on a host of issues, including investments, clean energy, trade, technology, people-to-people linkage, space, biofuels, critical minerals, mobility of skilled personnel and infrastructure. That included a working lunch that Modi held with French president Emmanuel Macron and meetings with Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau, president of Comores and president-in-office of the African Union Azali Assoumani, prime minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands and president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman also took the opportunity to hold bilateral meetings, including with Asian Development Bank President Masasugu Asakawa. Sitharaman, in a social media post, highlighted the need for additional push by the multilateral development bank ecosystem to step up the implementation of their Capital Adequacy Framework.

In his concluding remark at the summit, Modi said that in the remaining two months and a half of India’s G20 presidency, the grouping will try to advance its shared goals. Modi also said that in the proposed virtual session in November, the decisions taken at the current leaders’ session can be reviewed.